Live Music
Archive
Librivox
Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland
Museum of Art
Internet
Arcade
Console Living Room
Open Library
American
Libraries
TV News
Understanding
9/11Tree Of Souls The Mythology Of Judaism Schwartz, Howard 2004
Bookreader Item Preview
Share or Embed This Item
- Publication date
- 2004
- Topics
- Jewish Legends, Jewish Mythology
- Collection
- journals_contributions; journals
- Language
- English
- Item Size
- 2.7G
Title: Tree of souls : the mythology of Judaism
Author: Schwartz, Howard,
---------------------
Dewey Call Number := 296.1 SCH
ISBN: 9780195086799
---------------------
Publication Information: Oxford ; New York :
Oxford University Press, 2004.
Publisher: Oxford University Press,
---------------------
Format: Regular print
Physical Description: lxxxvi, 618 p. : ill. ; 26 cm.
---------------------
General Note: Retellings of nearly 700 Jewish myths.
Subject Term: Jewish legends. Jewish mythology.
---------------------
Added Author: Loebel-Fried, Caren.
---------------------
====================
🌍 Table of Contents ◄☀
Preface
Introduction
►01🔯 Book One Myths of God.
►02🔯 Book Two Myths of Creation.
►03🔯 Book Three Myths of Heaven.
►04🔯 Book Four Myths of Hell.
►05🔯 Book Five Myths of the Holy Word.
►06🔯 Book Six Myths of the Holy Time.
►07🔯 Book Seven Myths of the Holy People.
►08🔯 Book Eight Myths of the Holy Land.
►09🔯 Book Nine Myths of Exile.
►10🔯 Book Ten Myths of the Messiah.
============================================
☀►Summary ◄☀
Only one of the world's mythologies has remained essentially unrecognized--the mythology of Judaism.
As Howard Schwartz reveals in Tree of Souls, the first anthology of Jewish mythology in English, this mythical tradition is as rich and as fascinating as any in the world.
Drawing from the Bible, the Pseudepigrapha, the Talmud and Midrash, the kabbalistic literature, medieval folklore, Hasidic texts, and oral lore collected in the modern era, Schwartz has gathered together nearly 700 of the key Jewish myths.
The myths themselves are marvelous. We read of Adam'sdiamond and the Land of Eretz (where it is always dark), the fall of Lucifer and the quarrel of the sun and the moon, the Treasury of Souls and the Divine Chariot.
We discover new tales about the great figures of the Hebrew Bible, from Adam to Moses; stories about God's Bride, the Shekhinah, and theevil temptress, Lilith; plus many tales about angels and demons, spirits and vampires, giant beasts and the Golem.
Equally important, Schwartz provides a wealth of additional information.
For each myth, he includes extensive commentary,
revealing the source of the myth and explaining how it relates to other Jewish myths as well as to world literature
(for instance, comparing Eve's release of evil into the world with Pandora's).
For ease of use, Schwartz divides the volume into ten books:
Myths of God, Myths of Creation, Myths of Heaven, Myths of Hell, Myths of the Holy Word, Myths of the HolyTime, Myths of the Holy People, Myths of the Holy Land, Myths of Exile, and Myths of the Messiah. Schwartz,
a renowned collector and teller of traditional Jewish tales, now illuminates the previously unexplored territory of Jewish mythology.
This pioneering anthology is essential for anyone interested in the Hebrew Bible, Jewish faith and culture, and world mythology.
♠ Author Notes ♠
Howard Schwartz is Professor of English at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
He is the editor of Elijah's Violin and Other Jewish Fairy Tales, Miriam's Tambourine: Jewish Folktales from Around the World, Lilith's Cave:
Jewish Tales of the Supernatural, and Gabriel's Palace: Jewish MysticalTales. Caren Loebel-Fried is an award-winning illustrator and author of many works on mythology.
Her Hawaiian Legends of the Guardian Spirits received the 2003 Ka Palapala Po`okela Award for Excellence in Illustration.
♠ Syndetics ICE Summary ♠
The first anthology of Jewish mythology in English, Tree of Souls reveals a mythical tradition as rich and as fascinating as any in the world.
Drawing from the Bible, the Pseudepigrapha, the Talmud and Midrash, the kabbalistic literature, medieval folklore, Hasidic texts, and oral lore collected in the modern era, Schwartz has gathered together nearly 700 of the key Jewish myths. The myths themselves are marvelous.
We read of Adams diamond and the Land of Eretz (where it is always dark), the fall of Lucifer and the quarrel of the sun and the moon, the Treasury of Souls and the Divine Chariot.
We discover new tales about the great figures of the Hebrew Bible, from Adam to Moses; stories about God's Bride, the Shekhinah, and the evil temptress, Lilith; plus many tales about angels and demons, spirits and vampires, giant beasts and the Golem.
Equally important, Schwartz provides a wealth of additional information.
For each myth, he includes extensive commentary, revealing the source of the myth and explaining how it relates to other Jewish myths as well as to world literature (for instance, comparing Eves release of evil into the world with Pandoras).
For ease of use, Schwartz divides the volume into ten books, Myths of God, Myths of Creation, Myths of Heaven, Myths of Hell, Myths of the Holy Word, Myths of the Holy Time, Myths of the Holy People, Myths of the Holy Land, Myths of Exile, and Myths of the Messiah.
(Ingram 2014-05-06)
============================================
☀► Booklist Review ◄☀
Schwartz notes in his impressive introduction that some may be surprised at the idea of a Jewish mythology since Judaism is a monotheistic religion, meaning there can be no interaction among multiple gods, one of the hallmarks of mythology.
Yet the Bible, Schwartz notes, is written so compactly that there is plenty of room for interpretation, and out of interpretation, mythology flowers.
Drawing from the Bible, from the Talmud and Midrash, and from kabbalistic literature and medieval folklore, Schwartz explicates nearly 700 Jewish myths organized around broad themes such as myths of creation, heaven, and the Messiah.
Some are familiar, such as the stories about Adam's first wife, Lilith, but most are not well known, although they are linked directly to biblical stories.
For instance, one section begins with the Genesis story of Cain and Abel and then follows with myths about various aspects of the brothers' lives.
Going beyond the mythologies, Schwartz provides a wealth of supplementary information including sources and other world myths.
This remarkable work will be of interest to both the scholar and the browser. --
Ilene Cooper Copyright 2004 Booklist
========================================
♠ Library Journal Review ♠
Schwartz (English, Univ. of Missouri, St. Louis) gathers nearly 700 Jewish myths, organized into ten sections, with additional commentary for each selection revealing the source and explaining how it relates to other myths as well as to world literature.
This is not exactly new; works by Hayim Bialik and Yehoshua Ravinitzky, Rabbi Yakov ibn Chabib, and Louis Ginzberg also gather Aggadic stories.
Schwartz, however, has widened his category of inclusion, drawing not only from Talmudim and midrashim but also from
"outside texts" (sefer hitzonim) of the Apocrypha and pseudepigrapha; Gnostic, Samaritan, and Karaite texts; and more mainstream rabbinical works, such as excerpts from the Dead Sea Scrolls, Hekhalot texts and Kabalistic literature, medieval folklore, and Hasidic texts.
Refreshingly, Schwartz also rightly includes Kafka's Vor dem Gesetz ("Before the Law").
Note that some Orthodox Jews may object to the use of the term myths, as Judaism is conceived as a religion of revealed law viewed as truth.
Outstanding bibliographies and an "Israel Folktale Archives List" complete this excellent book of wondrous stories.
Highly recommended. David B. Levy, Charles E. Smith Jewish Day Sch., Rockville,
MD (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
========================================
♠ Choice Review ♠
Schwartz (English, Univ. of Missouri) offers a charming, illuminating book that will appeal to a wide range of readers.
For a long time, scholars argued that Judaism lacked mythology; indeed they claimed that Judaism represented a dramatic break with earlier, more myth-based religions.
Underlying this view was a negative evaluation of myths as both primitive and fundamentally untrue.
In recent years, however, scholars have sought to overturn this position by revealing the rich mythological tradition within Judaism and by redefining the category of myth itself in more sophisticated and positive terms.
Building on this scholarship, Schwartz has produced a book that is both accessible and engaging.
It is also thorough. Though no single volume could ever reproduce all the myths in Judaism, Tree of Souls contains a remarkably rich collection of traditions, helpfully organized according to a number of overarching themes, including myths of God, creation, heaven, hell, and so on.
These sections are further subdivided into even more specific categories such as the Garden of Eden, the Messiah, the Sabbath, the Torah, and many more. In short, there is something for everyone here.
^BSumming Up:
Recommended. All levels. N. R. Deutsch Swarthmore College
========================================
- Addeddate
- 2017-07-21 03:38:44
- Identifier
- TreeOfSoulsTheMythologyOfJudaismSchwartzHoward2004
- Identifier-ark
- ark:/13960/t3vt7hd78
- Ocr
- ABBYY FineReader 11.0
- Ppi
- 600
- Scanner
- Internet Archive HTML5 Uploader 1.6.3
